Postcard from P-town. Number 2 in the Robin Becker Chapbook Series, and runner-up for the inaugural Robin Becker Chapbook Prize, selected by Robin Becker:
“What do Tennessee Williams, Lena Horne, Chris Evert, Robert Goulet and Kitty Carlisle have in common? Steven Riel celebrates them all in this stylish collection of poems that examines the social construction of ‘effeminacy’ with an ironic artfulness, looking at gender performance in fresh and probing ways.”
Cover image: “Fight Like a Man” by Sean-Michael Rau; used by permission.
Published: March 1, 2009 [125 copies]
Second printing: July, 2009 [100 copies]
26 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-9820372-5-6
$9.00
Steven Riel is the author of two chapbooks, How to Dream (1992) and The Spirit Can Crest (2003). Christopher Bursk named him the 2005 Robert Fraser Distinguished Visiting Poet at Bucks County Community College. In 1987, one of his poems was selected by Denise Levertov as runner-up for the Grolier Poetry Peace Prize. From 1987 to 1995, he served as poetry editor of RFD. He received an MFA from New England College in 2008.
Cyndi Lauper
From the first bash of drums,
we can bet this won’t be pretty.
She’s dialing up 911–
in a stomp-squeal frenzy of escape,
a wail all lisp & ache, its silver spike
heels nearly skewering comic-book scraps,
untied ribbons underfoot.
A soul’s entrails. Road-kill of an ecstasy
that never looked both ways.
Skipped drumbeats ricochet
down the block. An empty lot.
Her siren’s stiletto
stab-stitches the sky.
A house of cards
props up one final offer
till our blonde stops holding her
breath.
Girl-wire whose plea
scrapes down to grieving
baby talk. The beauty is we know
what she’s groaning about.
Please click here to purchase Steven’s chapbook.
More of Steven’s poems online:
See also:
- Craig Leaf’s review of Postcard from P-town on page three of Literary Mary.
- Laurie Rosenblatt’s review of Postcard from P-town at Fiddler Crab Review.
Find more news and information at Steven’s web site.
Seven Kitchens Press 